UNDERSTANDING THE SGDs SERIES – GOAL 2

“If you want to eliminate hunger, everybody has to be involved.” – Bono

Goal 2: End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture

The aim of Goal 2 is to end all forms of hunger and malnutrition among people especially by making sure all children have access to safe, sufficient and nutritious food all year round.

Interesting Facts To Note

The global stats on the number of undernourished people was declining until 2015. Today, more than 820 million people regularly go to bed hungry, of whom about 135 million suffer from acute hunger largely due to man-made conflicts, climate change and economic downturns according to the United Nations.

Two out of every three employed workers experiencing malnourishment are in the agricultural sector. Poor nutrition causes nearly half (45 per cent) of deaths in children under five – 3.1 million children each year.

149 million children under 5 years of age — 22 percent of the global under-5 population—were still chronically undernourished in 2018.

Progress Made So Far

The fight against hunger has seen some progress over the past 15 years. Globally, the proportion of undernourished people declined from 15 percent in 2000 – 2002 to 11 percent in 2014 – 2016.

MTW’s Involvement In Achieving Goal 2

The Get Global Program, I would admit is a strategic initiative designed to help contribute to achieving this goal by developing the awareness capacity and skills of project participant in rural Ghana.

During the Goal No. 2 session, facilitators like myself have the objective of developing the communication, personal responsibility and forecast planning of beneficiaries.

Through innovative activities like Lines of Communication, a What-Do-You-Know-About-SDG2 True or False Game, a Grow A Bean Project and Keeping It Alive assignment, youths not only gain a deeper understanding of the facts about hunger around the world, how to avoid food waste and also basic agricultural skills in planting and learning how to keep a garden..

State of Goal 2 During COVID19

According to the UN, scarcity of food and prevalence of malnutrition are experiencing additional growing trends should nothing effective and immediate is done about productivity of farmers and supply of food to vulnerable areas especially now that countries are on lockdowns.

In light of the pandemic’s effects on the food and agricultural sector, prompt measures are needed to ensure that food supply chains are kept alive to mitigate the risk of large shocks that have a considerable impact on everybody, especially on the poor and the most vulnerable.

What You Can Do To Help Achieve Goal 2

According to unstats.un.org, achieving this goal will require better access to food and the widespread promotion of sustainable agriculture. This entails improving the productivity and incomes of small-scale farmers by promoting equal access to land, technology and markets, sustainable food production systems and resilient agricultural practices. It also requires increased investments through international cooperation to bolster the productive capacity of agriculture in developing countries.

So how does one get him or herself involved in helping achieve this goal? Mother Teresa once said, “If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one.” Mother Teresa.

Move The World adheres to this principle by encouraging each student on our Get Global program to plant and grow a bean for their household. With this, students develop keen interest in agricultural activities to feed future generations.

You could support MTW in implementing these social intervention initiatives by organising your personal fundraising event for MTW or through some ideas on Our donations page

In conclusion

With more than a quarter of a billion people potentially at the brink of starvation, the increase in hunger from 2015 requires immediate and emergency response from all. Meeting the immediate food needs of the vulnerable, boosting social protection programs and keeping the local supply chain moving could be the top three key things I would suggest utmost priority must be given to by all stakeholders – government, policy makers, investors, entrepreneurs, businesses, non profits etc!

Reference links:

https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/hunger

https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2016/goal-02/

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